Race 15: Round of Indianapolis

Results
Points

Spoiler:

Johaanes pleased with 4th-place finish

Chris Johaanes came from out of nowhere to lock up a top-5 finish at the prestigious Round of Indianapolis, and he appears to be pleased with his mid-season turnaround.

Said Johaanes, "We're working a helluva lot harder than the Hodges guys, and I'm very happy with how we've turned things around."

Azure comes back after slow start; scores points at Indy

After finally qualifying for his first TM Master Cup event, Frank Azure had a lot of good things to say about his run in the Round of Indianapolis. The 51 year old racing veteran and team owner started 34th and hung out towards the back for the first part of the race. The team worked on the car and got it better as the race went on and by halfway, was in the top 20 where he stayed for the rest of the race en route to a 13th place finish.

"We continued to work on the car throughout the race and it got better and better to the point that we were in the points." On the final pit stop, the 460 team gambled by taking 2 tires to try and get a top 10. "We figured we were going to get points regardless so we figured we'd take the gamble and try to get a top 10 out of it. Overall I'm honored just to be able to race here and the fact that we got points out of it makes it a whole lot better. Hopefully we will take this momentum into Decatur."

Could tire issues been the culprit in the two incidents Woodard was involved in?

It seems somewhat certain at this point, but it seems the tire issues that Woodard suffered last year have come back to haunt him. When reviewing footage from the onboard camera, the team (and any officials watching it), saw that Woodard was slowing down for the caution and trying to get back in line. A loud 'umph' could be heard and the car veered to the right. As this happened, Woodard attempted to save the situation but there was the 22 car of Dale Roswell. When Woodard finally got to pit, the crew saw the remains of the tire and the messed up wheel well. After making sure everything was cleared up and changed out, they released Woodard back onto the track with the permission of officials.

Upon the second incident and when Woodard pulled into the pits, the crew was able to get a clear view of the underside of the car when pulling off the damaged parts. A crew member looking at the steering system and front assembly saw something off and took notes about it. Upon doing the usual pit work, Woodard was released and it seemed that nothing else went wrong after that.

When Woodard and his crew chief were reporting to the officials, they handed the officials their evidence to issues with the car and not the driver. Of course the officials and TIM crew members were looking over the possible damaged areas contributed by the blown tire.

OOC: Just something that went around in my head and my team just loves to eat through their tires But if this is overreaching any bounds canon wise, I'll edit or remove it and any posts in any threads associated with this storyline.

I was going to do a sabotage story but that tree is already being barked at.

BlackDiamond Owner Slams "idiotic" Woodard

The Round of Indianapolis had its fair share of bruised egos, but BlackDiamond Motorsports in particular had a rough weekend in the race. BlackDiamond Racing owner Mike Rossiter was less than pleased with the antics of Terra International Motorsports driver Greg Woodard. BlackDiamond Racing, which operates on about the same budget as Terra International Motorsports despite running part-time, does not have a guaranteed position on the grid for 2013.

"That was an idiotic move, Greg just took Dale [Roswell] into the wall. There was no need for him to do that." Rossiter said.
"I don't think he did it on purpose because I know Greg, he's a good guy. It's just frustrating when one of your cars gets damaged because of someone else being dumb."

Dale Roswell, driver of the #22 Freedom for Palestine Omecha, made his thoughts clear after he eventually retired from the race with mechanical difficulties.

"It was one of those days that was so bad you wish you could have just slept in and stayed at home." Roswell said.
"Lately, we just can't get a break."